5/31/2007

Okay, Fine, Let's Talk About Casey Serin

Over the course of the past two weeks, I've paid far more attention to the goings-on at the brilliant Caseypedia wiki than I have the little fucktard himself. I love this site for two reasons: a few months ago, Casey Serin whined to the wikinazis about the portrayal of him in his wikipedia entry. They threatened to pull the plug on the entire entry, although much of what was said in those pages came directly from Casey Serin's own blog.

The other reason I love Caseypedia is that it is such a fabulous collection of so-called Haterz' writing. Proving that Casey Serin's critics are some of the brightest people online, Caseypedia is a highly accurate archive of Casey Serin's crimes and general stupidity, tossed with a light vinaigrette of dark humor and biting sarcasm.

In the chaos of the past two weeks, I'm still not entirely clear who initiated this wiki, so please step forward to claim your prize praise.

I haven't actually logged in yet to add to the mix, but want to thank Benoit for initiating an entry pour moi. And I really want to know who included the incredibly funny line about me in M. SINGH's entry. BTC has denied adding it, so I suspect either Benoit again or Akubi (who at the time of this writing, does not have her own wiki entry. I'll have to log in and remedy that!)

As I said before, I've paid only scant attention to Casey Serin over the past two weeks. But there were two things that I'd like to point out. After reading Casey's little meltdown toward Duane Legate during his talkcast-in-lieu-of-beg-a-thon, I wanted to physically shake the little fucktard.

The petulant tone and ensuing temper tantrum were totally out of line. Here's the bottom line, Casey--Duane LeGate has repeatedly offered significant help and resources to you, free of charge. And you have, frankly, fucked him nine ways from Sunday each and every time. You say you wouldn't post personal emails. Didn't you do just that with PRLinkScam?

Hasn't Nigel Swaby done exactly the same thing with your emails, time and time again, in an effort to pimp you out on his multiple blogs? Once again, you chose the wrong battle.

The other thing that struck me was that Casey Serin has begun to implement so many of the scams and plans that I predicted he'd pull out of his bag of tricks. He'd implemented his own version of "pay per post" in his blog, turning content over to basically writing about his advertisers and pasting in some hubris from folks who paid $100 to damage their professional reputations.

For the record, advertising on Casey Serin's "I Am Facing Foreclosure" reveals you to be an "any port in a storm" kind of person, regardless of your industry.

During this phase of Casey's blogging, he crows that he's recently taken an IQ test offered by one of his scamvertisers. And just as I've suspected all along, the results were less than stellar. A couple of weeks ago, Rob Dawg asked if his intuition might be off regarding Casey's intelligence or lack thereof.

But then Casey Serin actually revealed that he's got an IQ of 132 based off of some cheesy internet poll. I'm not going to waste time on determining whether or not this is an inflated number...I'll let the boy have his supposed "win" on this one.

This explains entirely why Casey Serin's critics lost patience with him so quickly. Because most of us regard that level of intelligence the way an average person regards a clinical moron. There's that large a gap between us and you, Casey.

Let me put it another way...one of the myriad admission requirements for my kindergarden was a minimum IQ of 150. And those were the "slow" kids.

So, Casey, you're just what we suspected all along--ill-equipped to make it into the Big Leagues. In this crowd, we'd probably open a vein and relax in a warm tub if we were as dumb as you. We assume that someone with that low an IQ has to remove their shoes and socks to count to twenty. You might have to go back and read that again very slowly to understand it, but it will eventually sink in.

Your 132 IQ earned you the ability to learn some business vocab off of the backs of flashcards. But your limited intelligence also means that you're not capable of applying that knowledge in any significant way.

So with no talent and not a heaping load of brainpower, you really did find your niche...carnival sideshow. What you achieved with IAFF is about the best you can do. And even then, you never quite found a way to push through any barriers and take even one segment of that website to the next level.

Whatever outage is going on with your site this time (yawn), you'd better hope you can find some way to live up to the promises you made to your advertisers. Because while I think they're a bunch of halfwits as well, they could very well take a great deal of pleasure in filing small-claims and other nuisance suits against you. By plastering their praise for you all over your blog, you'll prove them fools for doing business with you, and they could very well try to take your only legitimate resource--"I Am Facing Foreclosure" itself.

Casey Serin is the Smelly Car of real estate, the blogosphere, and the business world in general. By making the I Am Facing Foreclosure advertisers look like fools, they're just joining a list of folks who are learning just how hard it is to escape the stink.

65 comments:

Sprezzatura said...

Murst!

@Benoit: sprezzie.t@gmail.com

lawnmower man said...

"The eximious and delectable Ms ASPETH" is Miguel's work.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Sprezz, sent an e-mail...

Aspeth, if another anti-Casey talkcast is hosted again, call in! Bashing Casey is fun. heh. And I'm sure I speak for others when I say I'd be interested to hear from you, Homey, Rob, Steph, and so forth :-)

Schnapps said...

I'd love to hear Aspeth on a fraudcast too!

Will some fishy treats help? :)

Anonymous said...

At the end, I verbally named Aspeth (among others) to call in the next time. Don't disappoint :-)

Aspeth said...

Benoit...??????? I'm lost...

Anonymous said...

Aspeth!!!! heh. CHJTS just hosted a 2.5 hour Casey bash-fest on TalkShoe. A few haters including R-Boy, M SINGH, FlyingMonkeyWarrior, and myself called in.

Here's the link, although TalkShoe generally takes an hour or two to make the thing available for download (as of 10:50 PM EST, it's not there yet). Really fun show. There's a whole thread on E.N.

Akubi said...

I'm so bummed about the end of IAFF. The comments there and at EN have provided more laughs then I've had in a long time.

BelowTheCrowd said...

Dearest Aspeth,

Quite appropriate that an Ault girl should have attended such a prestigious kindergarten.

But were you ever subject to an intervention in kidergarten? I was. Refused to finger paint. Teacher thought there was something wrong with me. Mom decided I just had enough sense to avoid making a mess of myself.

I also had a nursery-school intervention. Refused my afternoon nap. Mom also correctly diagnosed that one.

And my final intervention was in grade school when I was accused of being "detached." Mom (who was a trained educator) made the final and correct determination: Bored out of my skull by teachers who weren't as smart as I was.

Those stories aside, am I the only one here who went to a public school???? I know I can write off Sprezzie and Benoit.

Although if you HAVE to go to a public school, I guess mine wasn't all that bad. Might even get a slightly lesser than normal turning up of the nose from the Ault girlz...

-btc

Aspeth said...

Benoit...i-net was down this morning and spent the rest of the day at the vet for follow-up. While I wrote this post this morning, I was under the impression that it hadn't posted until evening, but now am not sure.

Bottom line, it's been a long day and I just haven't been able to get too worked up about Casey Serin. It's a shame, too, because I really looked forward to this day, sitting down with a nice bottle of pinot from the mock 'cellar' (read: pantry) and laughing my ass off with other EN folks.

Anonymous said...

In a snarky aside, I just noticed Aspeth wrote: one of the myriad admission requirements for my kindergarden was a minimum IQ of 150.

You misspelled kindergarten. ::runs for cover:: ;-)

BelowTheCrowd said...

Benoit,

You are a dead man.

Get used to it.

:)

-btc

Sprezzatura said...

I have some very vague memories of being tested before I started kindergarten, but no clue whether there was an IQ component.

I had my IQ tested by a real professional some 12 years ago and I tested out at 110. I may not be smarter than Casey, but I'm clearly smart enough to avoid making the kinds of mistakes he did.

Aspeth said...

BTC...Wow. That's a lotta intervention going on there.

An oft-told story in my family is my visit to the kiddie shrink as a toddler. In retrospect, I wish it was because I was starting fires or something interesting, but it was because I toddled over to where a visiting cousin had left a textbook open and started reading off elements in the periodic table. Mom thought she'd been slipped acid during her pregnancy.

Considering the many hours of Sesame Street I'd ingested by then (picture the two heads sounding out words) this still doesn't seem like such a big deal. But it's my family's version of whipping out naked baby photos whenever I bring anyone new around.

Aspeth said...

Benoit....ROFLMAO !!!!!

An olde Norse spelling ????

BelowTheCrowd said...

I've met a Mensa member who could not hold a job.

I know another who is a real estate flipper and quickly headed towards stormy waters.

I find that IQ tests are pretty unreliable as a test of any real capabilities.

-btc

Aspeth said...

Sprezzie...I'm not buying that for a second. The mere idea forces speculation about Casey's test being a cakewalk. Perhaps there was some sweet equity to juice out of an artificially inflated appraisal of his skillz?

Aspeth said...

BTC...But I can't write with a fountain pen :)

Sprezzatura said...

Perhaps there was some sweet equity to juice out of an artificially inflated appraisal of his skillz?

LOL!

BelowTheCrowd said...

A typical IQ test is 38 questions in 20 minutes, with no outside aids, scratch paper, etc.

Casey did his in over an hour and used both sratch paper and a calculator.

Consider his score completely invalid.

BelowTheCrowd said...

How did they ever let you out of Ault?

-btc

Anonymous said...

Remember, Serin cheated on the test -- a non-standardized, Internet IQ test for God's sake -- by using a calculator. And it still took him much longer than the few Haterz™ who took the test just to see what the fuss was.

Regarding high IQ in general, I think that a slightly-higher-than-average intelligence is generally looked upon highly, but once you get over a certain level (say 140 or so), a disproportionate percentage of people are comparatively introverted and difficult to get along with over long periods of time. Just IMO.

BelowTheCrowd said...

In other words, Milton has a 170 IQ...

-btc

Aspeth said...

Benoit said...
difficult to get along with over long periods of time

Sigh...so this is how it ends, Benoit? ;-)

BelowTheCrowd said...

Like I said, he's a dead man he just doesn't know it yet.

On a more serious note. I'm going to Salt Lake City tomorrow. A week ago, I would have used it as a stalking opportunity. Not sure this time. Thinking that spending Saturday hiking upper Albion Basin in the Wasatch sounds better than stalking failed mortgage brokers.

-btc

Anonymous said...

Aspeth: so this is how it ends, Benoit? ;-)

Present company excepted :)

And on that note, I'm off to sleep. G'Night!

Schnapps said...

Heh. I go to a strata council meeting and see what I miss?

I went to public school (Canadian public school - French immersion program). Of course, it was a public school in a very, very expensive area.

I think I turned out okay. :>

But I don't put much stock in IQ tests, anyways. I've known people who have high IQs and no social skills - emotional intelligence.

Studies show high EI is a better predictor of success than a high IQ.

So nyah :>

Aspeth said...

What's a strata council meeting?

Yes, I have to agree. In the real world, away from the land of IQ tests, mad social skills will trump pure smarts just about every time.

Sprezzatura said...

By the way, guys, I was poking around the Internet tonight & managed to find a full archive of all IAFF posts & photos from April 16 onward, including the two contracts.

*pats Bloglines*

BelowTheCrowd said...

A strata council is kind of like what we would call a HOA board in this country.

Per Canadian rules (at least in BC, the only place I've ever cared about) they can have more power than a typical American condo HOA, but less than a New York City co-op board.

-btc

Aspeth said...

BTC...your blog just chastised me for trying to post too many comments in a short period of time (I'm thinking 3 in 24 hours?)

Was trying to post an "oops" over not seeing Lost Cause's preemptive Buffett comment.

Sprezzatura said...

BTC's blog also seems to have some strict spam filters, because at least 2 posts I've made there have vanished into the aether.

Aspeth said...

Hmmmm....

BTC, you should fix that element of your blog. After all, there exists a whole Haterz community recently in need of a blogger to flog!

BelowTheCrowd said...

Sprezzie,

Thanks, I don't think I'm running any spam filters beyond MT standard.

Aspeth,

Going to check the config. It should not be doing that, but I wonder if something changed during my last upgrade.

-btc

BelowTheCrowd said...

OK, I've loosened up the spam filtering. And moved one former Sprezzie comment from the spam folder. I could only find one.

Sorry, I haven't been very active in a long time, so have had relatively few commments.

Of course the Buffett thing was a bit of "bait." I didn't think Casey would find it. But I find Buffett fascinating (one of a couple of businesspeople who I've really studied in depth) so I had to throw him in...

FWIW, his wife moved to SF, not NYC. For many years, his holiday cards to close friends included three signatures: his, hers and the mistress, who was his de-facto wife.

Realistically, he is closer to Charlie Munger than to either of them.

-btc

BelowTheCrowd said...

Final fixes in place:

You now only have to wait 60 seconds between posts to BelowTheCrowd.com. It had been set to 180. I'm guessing your quick correction came in at under 3 minutes, so you triggered it. The idea is to prevent "flooding" by automatic commenters and haterz of all sorts.

FYI, I deleted the original comment.

Lowered the spam control settings.

And as a final gesture, I have you both as trusted commenters, so you bypass a lot of the checks.

Anyway, plane to Nigel-town in the morning. Duffel is already packed, Camelback is ready. And there have been reports of meese in the area in addition to the normal porcupines.

I'm done for the night.

-btc

R-Boy said...

btc, have a good trip. I am enjoying your blog

IQ is just another silly measurement. But for what its worth I had an opportunity to join MENSA and I declined, mainly because hardly any of them know what defense you run to stop the passing game, or prefer the interior of a dingy dive sports bar to the culture of a wine n dine ballroom.

Sigh.

when you say budweiser, you've said it all (duh duh)

(thats a college thing)

good morning!

Schnapps said...

BTC is right about the stratas - for some reason I thought you guys had them south of the 49th.

Last night was the AGM. Gah. Way too much thinking about limitations and negativity in that room. And not wanting to spend $500 NOW to save us $5000 later.

BelowTheCrowd said...

Schnapps,

We've got them, but the naming conventions are different, and the responsibilities vary somewhat (though it's state-dependent).

Anyway, I'm off to Nigel-town.

-btc

Sprezzatura said...

Mine's called a "landlord".

Anonymous said...

The Smelly Car of real estate!

That's gold, Jerry. Gold!

T said...

ROFL - Nacho has his own Caseypedia page which states that his net worth is higher than Casey's. Love it!

Anonymous said...

T, I'll take credit for writing that particular snark :-)

Glad you had a laugh... hehe

Aspeth said...

Nice one, Benoit. And, considering it's highly unlikely that Nacho has ever taken on any debt, it's hilariously true.

Casey Serin: negative net worth in the six-figures

Nacho the Cat: debt-free and protecting the house by hunting bugs and any shadows that look suspicious

In that respect, Nacho is even more of a contributing member to a household than Casey Serin!

BelowTheCrowd said...

Yeah, but you stole my idea!

I pointed out that a "dirty penny" was infinitely more greater than Casey Serin's net worth.

-btc

Anonymous said...

It's probably a scam. Casey is selling his blog:
http://www.myebid.com/cgi-bin/auction/view?cmd=view&listingID=4046

“iamfacingforeclosure.com is now for sale, the Feds are getting too close and I am fleeing back to Uzbekistan, it was fun why it lasted. Thanks everyone!”

T said...

Benoit, you totally rock my socks. <3

T said...

As far as the whole IAFF thing goes, I'm really glad to discover (via txchick @ thehousingbubbleblog) that Casey's finally taken it down. The kid needs to grow up and begin focusing on real life. I'm glad he's moving in that direction.

Anonymous said...

In the chaos of the past two weeks, I'm still not entirely clear who initiated this wiki, so please step forward to claim your prize praise.

I, the MurseMaster™ aka NoDebtWhatSoEver™ would humbly like to step forward and claim that honor. I still don't know quite why I did it, but it seemed a good idea at the time (I believe beer may have been involved) and I'm still reeling from the explosive growth it has experienced. And the sweet media coverage.

Schnapps said...

NDWSE (because the full version is just far too long to type and I have had some wine) - bravo!

With Snowflake's comeback, it'll have a life of its own. :>

I would have put my latest entry on caseypedia, but I am not sure where it would fit. :>

Akubi said...

Aspeth,
I'm hoping you will be critiquing the last(?) fraudcast in you next post;). Please don’t bother creating a Caseypedia entry for me, BTW. I prefer to remain under the radar.

Anonymous said...

And I really want to know who included the incredibly funny line about me in M. SINGH's entry. BTC has denied adding it, so I suspect either Benoit again or Akubi

Actually, it was me - I wrote virtually all the main entry on M.SINGH. He's far and away my favourite of the Haterz™, so I really wanted to do him justice.

That said, Lawnmower Man deserves a huge amount of credit both for starting the page in the first place and for the exhaustively-researched 'M.SINGH Speaks' sub-section.

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit confused by your comments implying a 132 IQ is no big deal.

It's at the 98% percentile.

That is certainly no indicator of common sense, or ability to succeed in the real world, of course. I've had 2 higher-IQ Mensa PhD's work for me in the past who usually appeared a bit slow in a normal activities.

And a kindergarten with a minimum IQ of 150 (for the slow kids) - well, that's just absolutely amazing. 99.9th percentile, one out of 2,000+ kids. Can't be many of those kindergartens in the country, and they'd each have to service quite a large geographical area!

Anonymous said...

That is certainly no indicator of common sense, or ability to succeed in the real world, of course. I've had 2 higher-IQ Mensa PhD's work for me in the past who usually appeared a bit slow in a normal activities.

This phenomenon has been observed on many occasions - and part of the problem is that high-IQ people often mentally overprocess what should be very straightforward tasks or instructions, by assuming that there's more to them than is in fact the case.

In effect, they stumble over their own brains.

Schnapps said...

In my experience, common sense isn't so common. Can we use "good judgment" instead?

I suffer from overthinking myself on occasion. Brain-stumbling hurts sometimes. :>

However, I doubt that we say say snowflake overthinks things.

Because that would require thinking.

:>

Anonymous said...

Still thinking about the 150+ IQ kindergarten, doesn't pass my sniff test:

- 1 of 2,000 kids have 150+ IQ (fact)
- 20% of kids with that IQ level attend based on income, desire, other quals ... (conservative assumption, probably more like 10%)
- therefore, 1 of 10,000 kids attend
- age group is 1% of population (fact)
- therefore 1 of 1,000,000 by population attend
- class size of 20 (assumption)
- therefore, need population of 20 Million to generate 1 class.

You sure about the 150? :=)

Aspeth said...

Aha! Endgame makes a brilliant point! (Sorry I didn't see your earlier post sooner) Reflects an email from a friend who said, "come on, admit it--you've got an 80 IQ at best!" heeheehee!!!

That could very well be true at this stage of the game. But I did much of my schooling at boarding school. BTC did a nice job of figuring that one out :)

Aspeth said...

Miguel...the M.SINGH entry is hysterical! You mentioned a few weeks ago that you had recently signed a book deal--care to share with the masses when we can look forward to seeing a favorite Haterz on Amazon?


Huge, monstrous applause to "the MurseMaster™ aka NoDebtWhatSoEver™" for creation of Caseypedia. It is truly a thing of wonder and a joy to behold! You may have just debunked the theory that alcohol dulls the senses...in this case it catalyzed a fantastic repository of all things Casey Serin!!!!

BelowTheCrowd said...

As to the schools, I think I know where Aspeth is coming from.

There are a small few places in the world with a sufficient population density of rich people to have schools that make such claims. That's not to say that they all live up to them, but they can get away with making them.

The Manhattan private-school scene is a lot like that. Here on the west side of LA/Beverly Hills it's a bit less extreme, but aspires to the same at times. I suspect you might find a few other small pockets here and there.

But the truth is that the claims of these schools are exaggerated and unevenly applied. Take the case of my two NYC cousins. Both have kids the same age. Kids grew up together, have had similar upbringing, went to the same guidance counselor (which is, in itself, a bizzare thing to have to do with a four-year-old) and tested out similarly on whatever the standard tests are that are given to 4 year old kindergarten applicants.

Both applied to the same schools. One was accepted to all, the other rejected from all but one. What's the difference?

My older cousin, the one whose kid was accepted, is a successful hedge fund manager who has left the hedge fund world to manage a portion of a Forbes-100 guy's wealth. His wife is a partner in a major law firm.

The younger cousin is a successful exec with a major entertainment conglomerate and her husband is a mid-level marketing exec for a large financial services company.

Or to put it in "real world" terms, the one is seen as being a long term "asset" to the school (ie, could make a major donation) and the other is not. The kids had to meet different criteria because of where they came from.

The silly rules often tossed about always apply to the "non-asset" parents. A poor kid from the wrong side of town can get in and even get a scholarship for being truly exceptional, and the schools love to talk about their unique students and incredible scores, all the while applying them selectively.

And it's not always money either. Neighbor's of my mom's couldn't get their kid into the school they wanted either. Not for lack of money, nor status. They lived in a huge Central Park West palace (made up of three combined apartments) that was valued at about $20m when they sold it, but they lived on Central Park West, not 5th, Madison, or Park. Oh yeah, they were also Jewish.

This is why Jack Grubman (the former telecom analyst) had to grovel for "reference" letters to the CEO of Citicorp at the time, to get his kid into the school he wanted. As a Jewish upstart, he was less desirable to some of those places than "old money." Without the right connections, even his kids would have been subjected to the "150 IQ" rules that others could get around just because they were named "Montgomery" or some such.
:)

So, take those numbers with a huge grain of salt. I know that the numbers tossed about at my Ivy League college get thrown out the window if the "right" applicant comes along. As an admissions officer at Yale said many years ago "of course we have to give preference to some legacy (children of wealthy alum) applicants. The bottom of the class has to come from somewhere." Explains our current president anyway. And his daughters.

-btc

Anonymous said...

You mentioned a few weeks ago that you had recently signed a book deal--care to share with the masses when we can look forward to seeing a favorite Haterz on Amazon?

Tragically, it's a handful of entries in a serious reference book, written to a rigorously-imposed house style and sharing houseroom with dozens if not hundreds of other contributors. So I wouldn't get too excited!

Aspeth said...

BTC...an excellent summary of the institutions. You are correct that, because private schools rely so heavily on their endowments, applicants are ranked differently. Thus my snarky--and misspelled--"slow kids" comment.

Miguel...it's a feat that you should be proud of! You've always entertained and enlightened me with your comments. I'm often disappointed that your user name doesn't link to a blog of your own, as I'm interested in reading more of your writing.

BelowTheCrowd said...

Aspeth,

BTDT. While I didn't go to a private school until college, I was around them enough to know the deal.

Milton would have loved my high school, if only for the name...

-btc

BelowTheCrowd said...

> BTC did a nice job of figuring that one out :) <

Spent enough of my life around prep school types to have been at least mildly amused by that book.

Besides, when I get past that vaguely stripper-like aroma that I still can't place and really want to hear explained sometime, I find beneath it the subtle yet unmistakable odor of Greenwich in the autumn oozing from your every pore...

-btc

Aspeth said...

I preview-read that book as a potential gift for a younger relative. And I hated it. Thought the main character demonstrated Asperger Syndrome in the lengthy analysis of the smallest things, and never understood that her so-called nemesis was just living her own life.

BelowTheCrowd said...

I got a copy from a gf who was vaguely involved with some company that was vaguely involved in negotiating movie rights.

Don't think I finished it. At least I have no real memory of an ending. I grew up surrounded by kids with Saabs, so I found some of the attitudes familiar.

-btc